Meet Breviarium Meum

The breviary you'll never leave behind

With Breviarium Meum on your iPhone, you'll never be caught without a traditional Latin breviary (1960 rubrics). You won't have to flip back and forth through a book because the App puts all the texts in order for you. If you aren't sure what the Latin means, just check the English translation. Discover a new way to pray the breviary, or discover the breviary for the first time.

Breviarium Meum HD

Reformatted for the iPad

Breviarium Meum HD, the special iPad version of the app, takes advantage of the iPad's larger display, which is ideal for viewing Latin and English side-by-side. Another notable feature is the forward and back buttons that allow you to quickly return to the hour or prayer you were just viewing.

Supporting Summorum Pontificum

Supporting the “reform of the reform”

This application makes it easier to begin using the traditional breviary. With it, priests, religious, and laity can rediscover the riches of the Church's liturgical tradition, and experience the “mutual enrichment” Pope Benedict XVI hopes Summorum Pontificum will produce.

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Breviarium Meum 1.6: new translations

A new option allows the use of the the Latin translation of the Psalms and Gospel canticles approved by Pius XII. The Latin is more classical, but less suitable for chanting. Pope Pius wisely decided to permit its use, but not require it. The 1961 editio typica was printed with this translation.

French has been added to the translations of the breviary available in the app. The translation is a work in progress, and at present only the Psalms are available. An English translation will appear for the parts of the office not yet available in French.

Breviarium Meum: for the iPhone and iPod touch

Breviarium Meum allows you to pray the traditional (1962) Latin breviary of the Catholic Church wherever you go. Just pull out your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, select the hour to pray, and begin. You can download the texts up to a week in advance, so you can pray even when you don't have a network connection. So if you’re on a mountain top making a retreat, or down in a valley to celebrate Mass in an isolated village, you can still keep up with the office, even if you left your printed breviary at home.

Are you unfamiliar with the old breviary? It’s a part of your heritage, and one that you have a right to know about and experience. As the instruction Universae Ecclesiae reaffirms, one goal of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum was to offer “to all the faithful the Roman Liturgy in the Usus Antiquior, considered as a precious treasure to be preserved” (8a).

This app is the easiest way to pray the breviary. It gives you all the texts in order, so you don’t have to flip back and forth as you would with a printed breviary. If the text is too small, you can make it bigger. If you don’t understand the Latin, you can display a parallel English translation.

Those more familiar with the breviary, and especially priests, will be pleased to see we’ve included a selection of prayers and blessings in Latin, such as are normally found in the appendix of a breviary.

Breviarium Meum HD: for the iPad

Breviarium Meum HD is the iPad version of Breviarium Meum. A separate app makes it easier for us to take advantage of special characteristics of the iPad. The most obvious of these is the larger display, ideal for viewing Latin and English side-by-side. We've also added forward and back buttons to navigate among the hours and prayers. If you accidentally load something, the back button will restore what you were previously viewing, so you won't lose your place.

Breviarium Meum 1.5: themes

The most obvious change in the new release is themes for the display of breviary texts. Besides the parchment background that has always been available, you can now choose a solid light or dark background. The former gives the app more of a modern look, and the latter is useful for reading in a dark environment.

This release also features the addition of a new breviary translation, namely Polish. French will probably be the next addition.

Breviarium Meum 1.4: more options for users

The latest release of Breviarium Meum offers users more choices. Versions of the office prior to 1962 are now available. In particular, priests might want to look at the Divino afflatu version of Sunday Matins in order to see the more of the sermon on the Sunday Gospel. Similarly, the version “1960 rubrics with new calendar,” although it has been ruled out as a legitimate form of the office, could be a useful reference when celebrating or attending Mass in the ordinary form: it can be used to check the reading at Matins for the saint of the day.

More choices are available for the breviary translation as well: Italian has been added, and German can also be selected, although the latter translation is far from complete. Due to the way it has been organized, many texts which lack a German translation will appear in Latin rather than English. The Italian translation has been marked “beta,” especially because of a known bug, which sometimes causes two hymn translations to appear: the English translation of the correct hymn, and the Italian translation of a different hymn.

Another expansion of the translations regards the “orationes” contained in Breviarium Meum's appendix. Nearly all of these now have an English translation, which will be displayed if the English translation of the breviary is selected. Thanks go to Mark Kendall for supplying most of these translations. A few orationes also have an Italian translation.

The new release also includes some bug fixes, optimizations for recent Apple hardware and software, and prayers for confessors and penitents (in the Variae section of the orationes).

Breviarium Meum 1.3 released

Breviarium Meum 1.3 (and Breviarum Meum HD 1.3) is now available in the App Store. It features enhancements for iOS 7 and improved download reliablility. There are also a number of new texts in the orationes section, most of which were provided by Mark Kendall:

Breviarium Meum 1.2 released

Most of the development work done for Breviarium Meum regards the server rather than the app. The former usually receives some update every week, and sometimes even more often, mostly to correct minor errors in the breviary text. Now, however, the time has come for a new version of the app. Breviarium Meum 1.2 has been released for use on the iPhone and iPod touch, and Breviarium Meum HD 1.2 for use on the iPad.

Besides bug fixes and support for the latest iPhone and iPad, there are also a few enhancements, including the following additions to the orationes:

the blessings for a crucifix, miraculous medal, medal of St. Benedict, and the rite of imposition of the brown scapular;

the vesting prayers before mass for priests; and

the much requested prayers before and after the divine office.

A new feature requested by several users is the ability to access yesterday's office. You will find it just above today's office in the list of hours.